Tommy Watt was a Scottish jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 bandleader.

Watt was hired as a pianist by Carl Barriteau

Carl Barriteau

Carl Alrich Stanley Barriteau was a jazz clarinetist.Barriteau was raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He played tenor horn in Trinidad from 1926 to 1932, then played clarinet in a local police band from 1933 to 1936. At the same time, he also played in Port of Spain with the Jazz Hounds and the...

 at age 17, and served in the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 during the Second World War. He moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 following the war, where he played with Ambrose

Ambrose (bandleader)

Benjamin Baruch Ambrose , known professionally as Ambrose or Bert Ambrose, was an English bandleader and violinist. Ambrose become the leader of a highly acclaimed English dance band, the Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra, in the 1930s.-Early life:Ambrose was born in the East End of London; his father...

, Harry Roy

Harry Roy

Harry Roy was a British dance band leader and clarinet player from the 1920s until the 1960s.-Life and career:...

, and Ken Mackintosh

Ken Mackintosh

Ken Mackintosh Mackintosh was one of Britain's most distinguished bandleaders of the 20th century, accompanying singers such as Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Matt Munro. He was born in Halifax Road, near Knowler Hill, in 1919 and devoted his life to music, after buying his first alto saxophone, at...

. He teamed up with actor Brian Rix, whom he had met during the war, in 1955 to record a demo, which eventually led to a contract with the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

. After making appearances behind Matt Munro, Parlophone Records hired Watt for session and arranging work. In 1956 Watt put together his first big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

, which played at Quaglino's, a London restaurant. Among his sidemen were Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British jazz instrumentalists.- Early life :Hayes was born...

, Ronnie Ross

Ronnie Ross

Albert Ronald "Ronnie" Ross was a jazz baritone saxophonist.Ross moved to England in 1946 and began playing tenor saxophone in the 1950s with Tony Kinsey, Ted Heath, and Don Rendell. During his tenure with Rendell he switched to baritone saxophone...

, Jackie Armstrong, Tommy McQuater

Tommy McQuater

Thomas Mossie "Tommy" McQuater was a Scottish jazz trumpeter.-Biography:Born in Maybole, Ayrshire, McQuater was most notable for his work in the United Kingdom with Bert Ambrose in the 1930s, and also for some recordings done with George Chisholm and Benny Carter.McQuater showed musical talent...

, Bert Courtley, and Phil Seaman

Phil Seaman

Phil Seaman was an English piano based singer-songwriter who found fame with his hit single "Rain" in 1972, and the album Vermillion Memoirs of the same year....

.

Watt became one of the better-known British bandleaders of the 1950s, winning an Ivor Novello Award for the song "Overdrive" and releasing their first LP record

LP record

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 in 1958. Watt's arrangements of Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

 songs so impressed Basie himself that he incorporated some of Watt's changes into his own performances. After disbanding his ensemble, Watt worked with Rix on stage shows and films, including The Night We Got the Bird

The Night We Got the Bird

The Night We Got the Bird is a 1961 British comedy film and a follow up to the 1959 film, using the same title name The Night We Dropped a Clanger, it was directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Dora Bryan, Ronald Shiner and Irene Handl...

and Nothing Barred. He led the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra

BBC Northern Dance Orchestra

The BBC Northern Dance Orchestra was a big band run by the BBC and formed in 1951 as the successor to the BBC's Northern Variety Orchestra. Known to listeners as the NDO, it broadcast on the radio daily from the Playhouse Theatre in Hulme before moving to the BBC studios in Oxford Road...

 and the BBC Big Band

BBC Big Band

The BBC Big Band, originally known as the BBC Radio Big Band is a British big band run under the auspices of the BBC. Widely regarded as the UK’s leading and most versatile jazz orchestra, the band broadcasts exclusivley on BBC Radio, particularly on BBC Radio 2's long running series Big Band Special...

 briefly in the early 1960s, but squabbles with management quickly ended this contract. In 1964 he assembled the Centre 42 Big Band, and through the end of the decade wrote for television and directed singers Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper

Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper was a very popular British prop comedian and magician from Caerphilly, Wales.Cooper was a member of The Magic Circle, and respected by traditional magicians...

 and Freddie Starr

Freddie Starr

Freddie Starr is an English comedian who became famous in the early 1970s. He is also an impressionist and singer, with a chart album After the Laughter and UK Top 10 single, "It's You", in March 1974 to his credit.-Early career:Under his real name, he appeared as a teenager in the film Violent...

.

In 1970 Watt put together a new group to perform at the Dorchester Hotel

Dorchester Hotel

The Dorchester is a luxury hotel in London, opened on 18 April 1931. It is situated on Park Lane in Mayfair, overlooking Hyde Park.The Dorchester was created by the famous builder Sir Robert McAlpine and the managing director of Gordon Hotels Ltd, Sir Frances Towle, who shared a vision of creating...

 in London, but was dissatisfied with the gig and disbanded the orchestra soon after. He left music, aside from occasional piano performances, and became an interior decorator. His son Ben Watt

Ben Watt

Benjamin Brian Thomas Watt is a British musician, DJ, and record producer, best known as one half of the duo, Everything but the Girl.-Family:...

 became famous in his own right as a member of Everything But the Girl

Everything but the Girl

Everything but the Girl was a two-person English band, formed in Hull during 1981, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Ben Watt . They are currently inactive although vocalist Tracey Thorn hinted that they may reform someday...

. He died in 2006.